JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Having completed a high-level study assessing the potential for mining the Monty deposit, in Western Australia, ASX-listed metals developer Talisman Mining plans to shift its exploration focus from inward-looking resource definition to a more systematic exploration strategy.

The company noted on Thursday that the results of the feasibility work at Monty, a new massive sulphide discovery located at the Springfield project in the Bryah basin, were positive, with no high-level fatal flaws identified. Talisman expected the scope of the study to be finalised shortly by its joint venture (JV) with Sandfire Resources, allowing for work on the project to get under way in the forthcoming weeks.

The mineral resource estimate at Monty was estimated at 1.05-million tonnes at 9.4% copper and 1.6 g/t gold – an exceptionally high-grade deposit and the first to be discovered outside Sandfire’s DeGrussa complex of deposits.

However, in an attempt to step out from the high-grade Monty deposit, Talisman was pursuing additional exploration activities across the wider Springfield project, with an additional aim of further understanding the near environs of the Monty deposit.

Talisman noted that, with only three diamond holes and limited reverse-circulation undertaken by the JV outside of the Monty deposit, exploration of the wider Springfield project remained “very much of a greenfield nature”, with multiple prospective volcanogenic massive sulphide corridors identified within the project.

The JV’s exploration strategy at Springfield leveraged off existing data sets from the companies’ activities, allowing for a staged and systematic process aimed at building geological, geochemical and structural understanding.

The process involved the collection and integration of data collected from air-core drilling and the testing of defined horizons through a down-hole electromagnetic (DHEM) geophysical survey, which involved drilling a deeper reverse-circulation (RC) hole to act as a platform for the DHEM survey.

Interpretation of the new information would be undertaken to further develop and refine the geological interpretation.

Talisman concluded that the first stage of the step-out RC drilling had been undertaken across the Monty and Homer trends in the Springfield project, with DHEM surveys now substantially completed.

It had also completed targeted structural diamond drilling of the Monty deposit, the results of which would form the basis of a detailed three-dimensional geological model of the deposit.